This
is not of God. This is not by God. This is neither a divine act of commission
nor a divine act of omission. God wants every person to have a long, happy,
healthy life. The only divine message in this horrible act is that this is not
how God wants us to live and it is not the life that God wants for us.

Whether
it is the World War II Holocaust or this massacre or the 5-week death of a
friend by pancreatic cancer, I do not know why God does not intervene. It is an
unfathomable and indecipherable mystery – the contemplation of which leads
nowhere, solves nothing, and is incapable of lessening the sharp ache in our
hearts. We do not understand. We know we will never understand and it makes our
heartache just that much more pointed and more poignant.

It is a time for grieving. It is a time for
seeking and offering mutual comfort. It is a time for tears and vigils and
prayers of grief and services of remembering and gathering. There can never be
enough hugs – yet, we will seek and offer hugs. There can never be enough words
– yet, we will tell and listen to memories and emotions. There can never be
enough silence – yet, in silence we will gather as one community as often as it
is necessary.

There
can never be enough questions – yet, we will ask questions – of ourselves and
of those we elect to positions of governance.

For
the school year 2010-2011, the enrollment at Sandy Hook Elementary was 575.

According
to the FBI, for children aged from newborn to 12 years, by year those murdered
were:

2010
– 627

2009
– 634

2008
– 702

2007
– 695

2006
– 663

Every year for
those five years, more children were murdered than the enrollment of Sandy Hook
Elementary. While over half of them were white, over a third of them were
black. Where is our grief and outrage and vigils and questions for any of those
children?

Instead
of gun control, let’s talk about gun responsibility. As a community, state, and
nation, we have a responsibility to determine:

who is allowed to manufacture guns and what kind
of guns?

who is allowed to sell guns?

who is allowed to purchase guns?

what training should be required of those who
are allowed to purchase guns?

what is the responsibility of gun owners to keep
their guns out of the hands of those who are not allowed to have a gun?

According
to the FBI, from 2001 through 2010, there were 70,975 murders and 47,856
(67.43%) of those murders were with firearms. The next identifiable murder
weapon was “knives and cutting instruments” which was responsible for 9,075
murders or 12.79%. For the first decade of this century, firearms were used to
commit 5.27 times as many murders as knives. When a single type of weapon is
responsible for more than 2/3 of the murders, it is time to be much more
responsible about the availability and control of that weapon.

Finally,
the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre was not an act of evil. To use the label
“evil” is to wash our hands of our communal responsibility. We desperately need to put in place a system to identify and intercede for those who pose a threat to themselves or others whether it be by their mental incompetence, emotional incapability, or potential for violence. As important as it is to increase the legal requirements for gun
responsibility, it is vastly more important to implement a public mental health
system that respects due process and individual rights and utilizes the best
psychiatric and psychological diagnostics and therapies and oversight.

Either
response, but especially both of them – better gun responsibility and a public
mental health system – would be a far better memorial than any marble or
granite edifice. Let our response be both healing and constructive.